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July 15, 2025
 

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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 28, 2021
‘Unlock Your Heart’: Queen bee brings the sting of teen drama
Anna Yamada is captivating as a high school senior who seems to have it all — except the boy she likes — and comes up with a plan to win his affections in a teen drama from Rin Shuto.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2021
‘Pretenders’: Much ado about altruism in the social media age
Izuru Kumasaka's film about the slippery slopes of tricking people into being good Samaritans and chasing internet fame combines a scrappy energy with guerilla-style shots of Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 14, 2021
‘Baragaki: Unbroken Samurai’: A historical swashbuckler full of gusto
Director Masato Harada's period film focuses on the rise and fall of the infamous Shinsengumi samurai corps during the years of political tumult leading up to the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 7, 2021
‘In the Wake’: The trauma of 3/11 lingers, 10 years on
Takahisa Zeze's murder drama focuses on the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the survivors who have been neglected by the social welfare system.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 30, 2021
‘Eternally Younger Than Those Idiots’: Giving adulthood the old college try
Yui Sakuma makes a quirky character relatable in Ryohei Yoshino's earnest coming-of-age drama about a college student who's out of touch with her peers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 23, 2021
‘First Gentleman’: Political romcom is an also-ran
Hayato Kawai's lightweight comedy imagines Japan getting its first female prime minister, but reality may have already caught up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 3, 2021
‘Moonlight Shadow’: Dream-like mood piece depicts grief with aching clarity
Nana Komatsu's performance as a woman mourning a lost love anchors Edmund Yeo's seductive adaptation of a Banana Yoshimoto short story.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 26, 2021
‘A Girl on the Shore’: A risque teen drama comes up empty
Atsushi Ueda's film adaptation of Inio Asano's manga stays true to its source material, but doesn't quite capture the messy emotions of adolescence.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2021
‘Drive My Car’: Slow-burn drama does best when taking new routes
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's adaptation of a Haruki Murakami story, which won the award for best screenplay at this year's Cannes film festival, is a meta-drama on loss and breaking down barriers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 12, 2021
‘It’s a Flickering Life’: A heartfelt ode to golden oldies spread thin
Veteran filmmaker Yoji Yamada's tribute to the film industry and the audiences who are keeping it alive is well-meaning but doesn't quite hit its mark.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2021
‘Tokyo Kurds’: A sobering look at lives in limbo
Fumiari Hyuga's documentary about asylum seekers in Japan is an intimate portrait of life with freedom hanging in the balance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 8, 2021
‘The Asian Angel’: A road movie with a touch of the divine
Two dysfunctional families from Japan and South Korea take a cross-country road trip in Yuya Ishii's “The Asian Angel.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 1, 2021
‘The Naked Director Season 2’: Netflix’s porn industry saga is skin deep
The second season of the streaming giant's fictionalized biopic of Japan's notorious adult-video director and entrepreneur offers another round of cheap thrills.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2021
‘The Door into Summer’: Some doors are best left closed
An orphaned genius travels to the future and back in Takahiro Miki's treacly sci-fi, “The Door Into Summer,” based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2021
‘Mari and Mari’: A perfect couple comes undone
Tatsuya Yamanishi's intriguing debut feature takes a cynical view of relationships, with a premise that's like something out of an early Haruki Murakami story.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 3, 2021
‘Brothers in Brothel’: Come for the sex, stay for the family drama
Sex is a dirty family business in actor-turned-director Jiro Sato's vivid drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 26, 2021
'Tomorrow's Dinner Table': Three women are served an overwhelming helping of struggle
Mitsuki Takahata is a standout in Takahisa Zeze's uneven multinarrative drama about the struggles of modern mothers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2021
'A Madder Red': Yuya Ishii's pandemic drama is scattershot but soulful
Social realism rubs up against melodrama in the film 'A Madder Red,' which focuses on a single mother dealing with economic challenges during the pandemic.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2021
Pioneering composer Terry Riley finds himself comfortably marooned in Japan
Performer-composer Terry Riley's 1964 piece 'In C' has been compared to Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2021
‘Headless Girl’: A lighter approach to the act of historical interpretation
A planned peace memorial triggers open conflict in Ken Kawai's “Headless Girl,” a scattershot satire about who gets to write history.
U.S. urges clarity on Japan’s role in potential war over Taiwan, report says
A Ground Self-Defense Force member conducts a military drill with an anti-ship missiles unit, at the GSDF's base on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
Tourists in Japan have telemedicine options before calling 119
Foreign tourists at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. More than 1 million international visitors have a medical issue in Japan every year.
Tropical Storm Nari moves northward, with possible landfall Tuesday
Tropical Storm Nari's forecast path as of Monday morning
Nissan clinches $4.5 billion bond deal after orders soar
Nissan Motor has raised $4.5 billion through a junk bond sale in U.S. dollars and euros, part of which carries a record-high coupon rate.
U.S. urges clarity on Japan’s role in potential war over Taiwan, report says
A Ground Self-Defense Force member conducts a military drill with an anti-ship missiles unit, at the GSDF's base on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
Tourists in Japan have telemedicine options before calling 119
Foreign tourists at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. More than 1 million international visitors have a medical issue in Japan every year.
Is Japanese skin really ‘too smooth’ for Hideo Kojima’s games?
Hideo Kojima, the leading auteur in Japanese video games, has skirted controversy in the wake of the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
An emoji used to say it all. Now it might say too much.
Apple’s Craig Federighi shows off a set of emoji at a conference on June 13, 2016. While the small pictures have proved helpful in conveying nuance in our texts, younger people are using them less often.
‘Our ultimate goal is to save every single Japanese video game’
After nearly shuttering earlier this year, the Tokyo-based Game Preservation Society continues its work to save the early history of Japanese gaming.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
By Megha Wadhwa

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